ERIC Number: EJ1066437
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-1857
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Available Date: N/A
Challenges to the Global Concept of Student-Centered Learning with Special Reference to the United Arab Emirates: "Never Fail a Nahayan"
Jackson, Liz
Educational Philosophy and Theory, v47 n8 p760-773 2015
Student-centered learning has been conceived as a Western export to the East and the developing world in the last few decades. Philosophers of education often associate student-centered learning with frameworks related to meeting the needs of individual pupils: from Deweyan experiential learning, to the "pedagogy of the oppressed" and other social justice orientations. Yet student-centered learning has also become, in the era of neoliberal education, a jingoistic advertisement for practices and ideologies which can be seen to lead to a global devaluation of the educational profession, and the bolstering of the view of the student as a customer. In this article, I want to disentangle these views and explore some limitations of either model of student-centered learning. To add context, I consider education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) today, which provides an extreme example of the risks involved with prioritizing student's self-identified needs and interests above all else, as in an idealized or exaggerated student-centered concept. I conclude with brief comments on amending the philosophical concept of student-centered learning to be useful in diverse contexts today.
Descriptors: Educational Philosophy, Foreign Countries, Student Centered Curriculum, Guidelines, Experiential Learning, Student Needs, Student Interests, Risk, Teaching Methods, Neoliberalism, Commercialization, Western Civilization
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Arab Emirates
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Author Affiliations: N/A